Where has all the space gone?

Wolfe Tone

Which Way Did He Go?
Joined
Dec 13, 2001
Messages
2,770
Location
Co. Down, Ireland
I keep getting these annoying messages about running low on disk space. I have partitioned my hardrive (which is 120GB) One partition is 3GB for my Operating system (Win XP). It says that I have only 180MB (give or take it varies from time to time) yet I only have 4 folders in it. Documents and Setting which is 250MB, Programs which is 180MB, Temp which is 563 KB and Windows which is 1.35 GB. Now unless my math is way off I should have a little more free space than that. Any ideas.
 
you have swap file, virtual memory which is around 1GB. BTW it funny that you partitioned 3GB out of 120 : :)
 
I have the swap file set on the larger partition which is 108GB (It seems I've lost a few gig but that's not big deal.)
 
windows in 3GB?
i reckon you should've left it a bit bigger amount than that, it is windows after all :)
maybe it's backing up your system/settings and expanding that way?
 
3GB is waaay too little. Windows alone take a gig, as does many major apps if you install them there (which I find no reason not to). Temporary Internet files, if not rerouted somewhere else, can take up way more than 3 gigs if you don't clean them. In a word, 3GB primary partition (especially in a 120GB hd) is not a wise decision. I have a 80GB hd, and I allot 25GB for my primary partition currently. 20GB of 25GB is used up, by non-game applications alone.
 
There is folder called dllcache that takes much space. Currently, I have only CIVIII and PTW installed, beside Windows regular stuff, after fresh installation. My swap file is on another disk. Disk usage:3.5GB.

sfc /purgecache will free up dllcache folder.

Also disable system restore. There you have lots of hidden space. And make sure you have unhide hiden files.
 
All my games and other programs are stored on the larger partition and I install nothing to the partion windows is on. I'll try disabling the system restore, hopfully that will work. And I have unhidden files.

What exactly does sfc /purgecache do, and could it cause any harm?
 
Well I increased the size of the windows partition by 2GB. Which totally pissed up windows and caused me to be without a computer for a week. Anyway I think everything is working now.
 
there is no real, valid, practical reason you should partition your hard drive like that, and you experienced exactly why you should just not go there. Multi partitions on the same hard drive waste disk space, slightly increase read/write time, and if your system partition is too small, cause problems like the one your having.

I did that one time a long time ago so my novice self could feel just a little bit more spiffy with the added techo-fluff in my geek conversational repitoir. "yeah blah blah I got a 9 gig with 5 partitions DUDE blah blah thats so COOL, huh" That was a foolish move. As game file sizes increased ( Diablo 1 on to Diablo 2 and its expansion), I found myself unable to install the game, even though I had enough room if I totaled up all the free space of all my patitions. There was not enough space in one of my single partitions. A file cannot span partitions. Partition Magic is a pipe dream and a gamble.

The only place multi-partition hard drives would be slightly useful is in the office on a server that is being used by a few people.

Also, dont forget that even though your drive is 120 GB, windows will set aside a certain ammount of space on EACH partition for their respective File Allocation Tables.
 
Well the reason I have it partitioned is that in case windows pisses up (not that it would ever happen, it's a Mircosoft product after all :D) all my important files will be safe.
 
If you want to do that, then find a cheap hard drive, 10 to 20 gig, and use it as your boot disk. Then put your 120gig on your 'd' drive. I'm not entirely sure that a partition will save you if windows crashes. Of course, if any system crashes hard enough nothings safe. . .
 
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